- Study Aims to Capture the Trends, Services, Roles and Business Operations of the Next Generation of Customer Contact Centres

GLASGOW, Scotland, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sword Ciboodle, a global provider of customer engagement solutions, and CCA, the leading independent authority on customer contact strategies and operations, today announced an open invitation for participation in their joint research project that focuses on "Smart Service in the Contact Centre," a study that will help organizations understand what is driving customer contact strategies and initiatives that are making service smarter and more effective -- ranging from decision making, to investments, to future plans. You can participate in the survey by visiting svy.mk/N3HUcA.

The research will help to reveal insights in five key areas:

• How contact centres are coping with a shift from passive service to proactive engagement
• What smart service strategies and new look business models are being adopted
• What tools are being relied on to intervene in a customer relationship
• Whether the role of the contact centre and its visibility to  the board is changing as customers are becoming more vocal
• Understanding what the evolved contact centre will look like and what other trends are influencing its continued change

In addition to the move from reactive customer service to proactive interactions, there is a significant amount of hype regarding social and self-service channels. Many companies are attempting to find a balance when it comes to continued investment in the "gray area" of self-serve channels.

"For many years, organisations have tried to reduce customer service interactions or avoid them completely. They've used a range of strategies including limiting accessibility, cheap sourcing, increasing self-service, deploying lean service principles and getting customers to help other customers," said Anne Marie Forsyth, CEO of CCA. "We now believe we are seeing the start of the Big Switch in customer service where organisations are beginning to change their strategy and culture by looking at 'Smart Service'. This means customer problems and issues are actively identified and resolved and the emphasis now is anticipating the inevitable problems and concerns that are part and parcel of the customer relationship and fixing them quickly. It also means companies need to think about joined up customer journeys that embrace assisted and unassisted channels. This study will help us understand how far down this journey businesses are."

"There are a number of factors driving a change in Customer Service strategies, from changing consumer lifestyles to increased competition in the marketplace against a backdrop of economic difficulty," said Paul White, Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Sword Ciboodle. "With this survey, we are looking to understand how today's customer service operations are responding to those changes, and we're excited to be a part of a study that will help the overall market do exactly that."

The survey will be open for participation from June 12th through July 6th, 2012. The high level results will be shared openly in September 2012.

About Sword Ciboodle

Sword Ciboodle delivers award-winning, modular CRM software to contact centers worldwide for advanced customer engagement across multiple social channels. The Sword Ciboodle platform accelerates the ability to deliver consistent customer service, leading to exceptional customer experiences that reduce overall operational costs and achieve higher revenue. Sword Ciboodle's family of product offerings can be categorized into three service bundles; be served, be solo and be social. The company and its contact center software are consistently recognized by industry analysts as one of the world's leading customer-centric solutions; featured by the prestigious Gartner Magic Quadrant, CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, for five consecutive years.

About CCA

With more than 15 years experience, CCA is recognised as the trusted reference for research, analysis and expertise. Its work with operators, BPO & shared service providers and vendors, ensures CCA retains its position as the definitive source within the contact centre market-place. CCA's agenda for 2012 is to provide customers with the information and data they need to make informed decisions around the future of their businesses.

Media Contact: Liz Erk, The Jaxson Group, +1-781-279-0370, liz@jaxsongroup.com 

SOURCE Sword Ciboodle